Business

An ecommerce site is a business. Our Management & Finance category addresses online payments, funding needs, employee issues, merchant profiles, key metrics, multichannel and omnichannel strategies, cross-border analyses, inventory management, accounting topics, sales taxes, and much more.

Business
Legal: When to Review, Update Business Contracts

January 13, 2015 • Elizabeth Lewis

As an attorney, I write a lot of contracts — terms of use, privacy policies, employment agreements, leases, and non-disclosure agreements, among others. However, what most people don’t understand about ...
Payments
EMV Credit Cards, Part 1: Who Is Responsible for Losses?

January 12, 2015 • Phil Hinke

This article is mainly for brick-and-mortar retailers. The upcoming October 2015 rule changes regarding EMV-enabled credit cards are specific to card-present...
Inventory
5 Tips for Buying Retail Inventory, for Ecommerce

January 11, 2015 • Armando Roggio

Smart wholesale buying can lead to ecommerce success and good profits. But the act of buying products to sell on an ecommerce site can be more of a challenge than ...
Business > Merchant Voice
Disaster planning for small businesses necessary?

January 9, 2015 • Richard Stubbings

I have frequently heard that disaster planning and risk assessment are for the large businesses, and that they are a needless administrative task for small companies. Disaster planning and risk ...
Business > Merchant Voice
Achieving a work-life balance

January 7, 2015 • Erica Tevis

Resolutions made in a new year are frequently discarded by the end of January. But a few years ago, when I was burnt out of running my own business, I ...
B2B
9 B2B Companies that Excel at Social Media

January 6, 2015 • Sig Ueland

Businesses that sell primarily to other companies can use social media to expand a brand, convey a vision, engage a community, promote products, and even provide customer support. Here is a list ...
Business
2014 Top 25: Our Most Popular Posts of the Year

December 31, 2014 • PEC Staff

As 2014 draws to a close, we’ve compiled a list of our 25 most popular articles of the year, based on the number of page views. Popular subjects included productivity tools, design,
Business
2 Ecommerce Blunders to Avoid in 2015

December 29, 2014 • Armando Roggio

Businesses ultimately fail when liabilities exceed assets — when the company doesn’t have enough money to pay its bills and keep operating. While there are many reasons or ways that ...
Business
Lessons Learned: Air Controller Directs Online Traffic

December 16, 2014 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

Nathan Hartnett was an air traffic control officer in the Royal Australian Air Force in his hometown of Toowoomba (a city 79 miles west of Brisbane), Australia from 2001 to ...
Shipping & Fulfillment
Drop Shipping: How to Manage Product Catalog Data

December 16, 2014 • Jeremy Hanks

This is my sixth article on ecommerce drop shipping. The first five installments addressed the basics. This month, I’ll leave the installment format behind and discuss deeper topics and trends. Drop ...
Business
How to Measure 2014 Holiday Ecommerce Marketing

December 15, 2014 • Armando Roggio

U.S. online retail sales generally grew throughout 2014. And many Internet merchants have enjoyed increased holiday sales so far. Nonetheless, smart businesses always look for ways to improve, and knowing ...
Amazon & Marketplaces > Merchant Voice
The end of automated Amazon repricing?

December 15, 2014 • Richard Stubbings

We all know of Black Friday and the sale prices offered on that day to kickstart holiday sales. But the repricing software Repricer Express created an entire new meaning to ...
Business > Merchant Voice
The value of focus, within Theory of Constraints

December 12, 2014 • David Sasson

By pulling together ideas from a few different management paradigms, I’ve developed a methodology to drive growth for my ecommerce company by setting up a structure of focus on an ...
Cross-border Selling
Mexico Poised for Ecommerce?

December 11, 2014 • Marcia Kaplan

With Mexico’s reputation for unrelenting poverty and crime, it’s difficult to think of the country as a good place to do business. Yet, with a population of 122.3 million and ...
Local Business > Merchant Voice
Brick-and-click stores should offer free pick-up

December 9, 2014 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

Free shipping is commonplace for ecommerce companies. For brick-and-click companies — those with online and physical stores — free pick-up can be a helpful shipping option for ecommerce customers that ...
Amazon & Marketplaces > Merchant Voice
Amazon’s version of Christmas customer care

December 7, 2014 • Richard Stubbings

At this time of year, more than any other time, you have to work harder at customer care. This is due to two main reasons. Firstly, you have a much ...
Fraud Prevention
How to Choose a Fraud Prevention Service, for Ecommerce

December 7, 2014 • Bob Angus

Ecommerce merchants love the holidays. So do fraudsters. Chargeback cheats and organized criminals know you’re busy driving sales, fulfilling orders, and keeping customers happy. They hope you are not as ...
Business
Websites Liable for Children’s Data under Federal Law

December 4, 2014 • Elizabeth Lewis

Last year at Christmas, I was surprised at the number of technology-focused toys aimed at children under four. I saw (a) stuffed animals that you can plug into your computer ...
Finance
Black Friday and Cyber Monday Losing Mojo?

December 3, 2014 • Marcia Kaplan

Although Cyber Monday and Black Friday online sales both broke records, analysts are seeing signs that the two big shopping days are losing some punch. Forrester Research ecommerce analyst Sucharita ...
Business > Merchant Voice
Consider niche purchasing

December 1, 2014 • Richard Stubbings

Much has been written about the advantages of niche selling. This is because it is a great way forward for independent retailers. Less is written about niche purchasing. This is ...
Business
Thanksgiving Day Online Sales Leap 14.3 Percent in 2014

December 1, 2014 • Armando Roggio

Even while the traditional Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing lay still warm on the table, Christmas shoppers were on tablets and desktop computers making purchases, boosting U.S. online sales some 14.3
Business
101 Ways to Use Data, for Ecommerce

November 25, 2014 • Gagan Mehra

Data can be extremely important to ecommerce merchants, as it helps them understand their customers better and generate more revenue. There are many ways a merchant can use data in ...
Shipping & Fulfillment
Ecommerce Drop Shipping vs. Marketplaces: Pros, Cons

November 25, 2014 • Jeremy Hanks

This is the fifth installment in my series on drop shipping and inventory supply models. In “Drop Shipping for Ecommerce, Part 1: Supply Chain History,” my first article, I addressed basic ...
Business
IBM Shows Off Analytics, Makes Holiday Predictions

November 24, 2014 • Armando Roggio

Mobile commerce will boom this holiday season, email will work better, and IBM intends to prove it with real-time online shopping trends data free to anyone. IBM’s ExperienceOne Benchmark Live online ...
Business
6 Steps to an Effective Ecommerce Privacy Policy

November 21, 2014 • Bob Angus

Online privacy is essential for ecommerce visitors and customers. The frequent headlines of security breaches and inappropriate data use by major companies have consumers more vigilant than ever about their ...
Payments
B2B Merchants Often Overpay for Card Processing

November 21, 2014 • Phil Hinke

Business-to-business merchants often overpay for credit card processing. There are many reasons for this, but one of the main ones is they choose a merchant account provider that doesn’t have ...
Business
Lessons Learned: Car Forums the Ramp to Ecommerce Success

November 20, 2014 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth

As a boy in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1960s, Fredric Gwinn used to watch his father, a machinist by trade, work on the family car, doing everything from routine maintenance ...
Business > Merchant Voice
5 tips for more holiday ecommerce sales

November 19, 2014 • David Sasson

There is a saying I’ve heard since moving to Kansas: “You make hay when the sun shines.” Well, for virtually all retailers in the U.S., the sun shines during the ...
Business
Mobile Commerce vs. Desktop: 7 Differences

November 19, 2014 • Joe Robison

Ecommerce is growing every year. But mobile ecommerce — purchases from smartphones and tablets — is growing even faster. One of the key points merchants must understand when building mobile ...
Fraud Prevention > Merchant Voice
How I detect ecommerce fraud

November 17, 2014 • Erica Tevis

I read an article the other day that said online fraud is at its highest during the Black Friday to Cyber Monday timeframe. It’s no wonder: That is the busiest ...